THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040297
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
For seven months, all through the spring and summer, children weren't allowed on some of the playground equipment in 10 of Chesapeake's 28 parks.
Certain rocking horses, swings and slides were off-limits, enclosed by 3 1/2-foot-high orange plastic fencing. Access was also blocked to a metal picnic shelter and several park basketball courts.
In March, tests showed that about one-third of the equipment in the city's parks had dangerous levels of lead-based paint on them. Twenty-seven of about 70 pieces exceeded the federal maximum of .5 percent lead, according to J. Pat Kallaher, buildings and grounds superintendent for the city Department of Parks and Recreation.
``In some cases, only the eyes on a rocking horse contained lead-based paint, but children will lick the eyes. And, on some equipment, as many as eight different colors had to be removed and repainted,'' Kallaher said.
The city spent nearly $30,000 to have the work done by East Coast Abatement Co. and monitored for government standards by Marine Chemist Service Inc. Chesapeake has allotted $50,000 per year since July 1993 for lead paint removal and asbestos abatement in the city's parks, playgrounds, recreation centers and public buildings.
Some cleaning and repainting was done right in the parks, and the soil surrounding large pieces of playground equipment was tested for toxic paint chips and dust particles. Kallaher said all the soil tests resulted in fewer than 100 parts lead per million, well below the 500 parts per million considered toxic.
Smaller pieces of equipment were removed from the parks and taken to a warehouse, where they were scraped, cleaned and repainted.
Work was originally scheduled to begin this spring, but previous commitments and rainy weather prevented East Coast Abatement from starting the clean-up project until August. Meanwhile, parts of the playgrounds remained off-limits until mid-October, when the work was finally completed and the orange fencing removed.
``We would go out and check the fencing from time to time,'' said Kallaher, ``and we could see that some children had crawled over it to get to the equipment. A couple of times we even saw parents lifting their children over the fences. When we questioned them about it, they said, `Well, he wanted to go play there, so I let him.' ''
There is little risk of a child getting lead poisoning from the playgrounds, according to William Willoughby, an environmental health specialist in Chesapeake's Health Department. Nevertheless, he said, the new paint has a bitter taste, so small children will tend not to put their mouths on it.
Testing for lead-based paint in playgrounds is extremely rare nationwide, state health officials say. But most cities in Hampton Roads have completed that testing. In Virginia Beach, where 27 of 161 pieces of equipment had unacceptably high lead levels, work has been completed to remove and replace the paint.
Portsmouth tested its equipment, and work has been completed on the pieces found to have lead paint, according to Paul Forehand, administrative coordinator for that city's Department of Parks and Recreation. As of this spring, Suffolk had no plans to conduct any tests.
Suffolk tested its playground equipment and found none of the pieces had lead-based paint, according to John Pierce, maintenance supervisor for the Suffolk Department of Parks and Recreation.
Norfolk, where most of the playground equipment is unpainted steel, tested more than 100 parks and found only five pieces of equipment with lead paint. They removed the equipment right away and replaced it with safe pieces already on hand, according to Peter O'Hallahan, maintenance superintendent for Norfolk's Department of Parks and Recreation.
In Chesapeake, Kallaher stressed that city funding for such projects extends to all parks, playgrounds, athletic fields, recreation centers and public buildings.
``It all goes together - environmental safety and grounds maintenance,'' he said. ``We'd rather bring people in to test for something that might be potent or harmful, than have someone get ill or hurt. Part of our job is to address hazards and see that they are safely corrected.'' by CNB